


Quests on a Journey

by HopeS_park



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, M/M, Modern AU, more tags to be added later, set in Italy 2016
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-07-03 06:32:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15813390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopeS_park/pseuds/HopeS_park
Summary: Pidge knows that there is one thing she has always wanted; to find out who she really is.And you know what they say. All roads lead to Rome.





	Quests on a Journey

Pidge shut the door with a determined bang.

All around the car, people were bustling and happily chattering. It was as crowded as the Holt's farm usually was on Sundays.

Pidge had never been able to convince her parents to not hold one of those cliché farm markets every other weekend.

When Matt had still been around, she'd survived the mass of people by playing pranks or running through the stables, together with her brother. But since Matt had left for Venice, these Sunday morning markets that almost resembled a town's meeting, had turned into outright torture.  
Here's the thing. Pidge had never liked people all that much, anyway. And the most positive aspect of living on a farm, she had found, was the complete and utter isolation.

So when all those familiar faces that Pidge didn't know the names to (but they sure knew hers) came up to her and hugged her and pressed kisses to her cheek and forehead, she tried to smile and stay calm. While internally screaming.

And seriously. Almost everyone commented on her height. (Pidge was fairly sure you could not grow five centimeters in a matter of seven days. Because, science.)

In short: the past five months weren't ones worth remembering.

That, among other things, was probably the reason Pidge had actually screamed (and cried tears of joy, though she'd never admit that) when the letter from Rome had been delivered.

It had felt like the morning of her 11th birthday, when she'd received her Hogwarts letter. (Granted, that had been a joke by Matt and one of his friends. But Pidge was still convinced that her real letter had simply gotten lost on the way and that one day, preferably soon, an owl would fly against her window, the real letter in its beak.)

But this was somewhat better. Because it was real. And because no one could take away the fact that she'd just received a junior scholarship for the University of Rome.

It had been May 20 2016. She hadn't known yet that said day would later mark the beginning of a new life.

May 20 had been nine days ago. Soon after receiving the letter, she had packed her things, had held several Skype calls with Matt (and Allura, a friend in Rome who'd be hosting her) and was good to go.

Ready to leave this constant small town of boredom.

Turned out simply leaving the place you'd called home for the past 16 years behind isn't as easy as one thinks it is. So, instead of hitting the road, she simply sat inside the small, rundown green car. Silent. Contemplating.

She'd said all her goodbyes. She had spent the whole night and half the morning hugging her mom, who had made sure Pidge had packed everything needed for a...Well, for moving out.

Her dad had been cooler about it. Sam Holt was an astro-biologist, with a job at the European Space Agency, which meant he wasn't home all that often, anyway. When he had heard of Pidge receiving the university's letter, he had simply smiled and said, "I always knew my little girl would make it big someday". After that, Pidge had the faint recollection of her mom Colleen saying something about how that 'someday' could wait until Pidge was older.

Through the whole ordeal, Pidge had simply rolled her eyes.

Anyway. Everything was set and there were no hard feelings left behind.

She had tidied up her room. The whole week had been spent helping her mom doing chores or going to the small town's city center so she could buy some shitty souvenir's to remind her of the middle of nowhere.

Heck, she'd even said Goodbye to Kaltenecker. (A cow Matt had, she shits you not, won at a carnival. He had brought the cow home and demanded the family celebrate him as a hero.)

So why was she hesitating? Hadn't she been waiting for this chance for almost 10 years now?

The chance to get away? To live her own life? To finally get to be who she truly wants to be?

And to be fair, her dream had never been that unrealistic. She hadn't wanted to become famous; to become a singer or an actress. All she had ever wanted was to get away from that awful little farm and to do something useful with her life.

When she'd graduated school at the age of 13, her parents had been worried beyond reason. What was Pidge supposed to do with her life now? She was only 13, she could not possibly decide on a future just yet.

But Pidge had.

She loved science. Always had. And her grades were amazing. So obviously, most universities would take her in and even be grateful in the process. But there had been a problem.

The Holts lacked the money to actually let Pidge move away.

At that time, Sam Holt hadn't been working for ESA yet. And even now, 3 years later, most of the money her dad brought home was spent on the farm and its inhabitants.

Not much was left for luxury.

Matt had had to work for years to finally be able to afford a small, one room apartment in Venice. And nowadays he still had to work at a part-time job besides going to university.

In other words, Pidge had applied for countless scholarship programs. She had hoped that, in case she got accepted, it would be enough to show her parents that she could be trusted with planning her own future.

And then that letter came and everything looked great and perfect and life seemed to finally go the way she wanted it to.

So why the _hell_ was she hesitating?

Funny enough, she seemed to not be the only one who noticed. Seconds later, a knock on her window made her jump. And when she turned around to look, she found two indigo eyes staring intently back at her. The girl they belonged to had pressed her forehead, wrinkled in something that could have been confusion, against the window of the passenger's side. She had a lopsided smile on her lips.

It was Romelle. The student from France who was working at the Holt's farm for...Pidge actually didn't know. Romelle had been around for as long as she could remember. So Pidge didn't actually know why she was there. She'd always thought of Romelle as that slap-stick character in a TV show that had no bits of backstory and was never really plot-relevant. (Until that one filler episode came along and changed absolutely everything. Because it gave the slap-stick a tragic backstory and made sure they did no longer look like the fuck-up everyone thought knew they were.)

So. Yeah. That about summed up Romelle's existence.  
But in no way did it mean that Pidge didn't appreciate her. When one ignored the rather annoying aspects of Romelle and worked oneself through her strange sense of humor (she had once completely lost it because a cow had farted), she could actually be nice.

And she was the closest thing to a best friend Pidge had ever had.

Groaning, Pidge let the window down. Almost instantly, Romelle reached her hand through the opening to open the door from inside. That got her a raised eyebrow from Pidge, while she scooted into the passenger seat.

"You could have simply opened the door from outside? There's a handle there too, y'know." Pidge frowned, while Romelle put her booted feet onto the glove compartment. "No need to be extra."

Romelle shrugged. "It's not as if I'll get any chances to be extra in the near future. You know how Sam is. All this 'We don't laugh unless it's politics'-stuff. How did you even survive this long?"

Pidge regarded her for a moment. Romelle was one of those people who did an awful lot of gestures while talking. Not just that, it seemed Romelle had set gestures for some words. For example, Sam was always accompanied by a pretzel-like crossing of arms and politics was just her puffing out her chest.

"Yes," Pidge drawled, "I know my dad." She averted her gaze from Romelle to cross her arms and initiate a fake shudder. "And I realized just know that you calling him Sam sounds like you guys are having an affair."

It was silent for a second. Pidge had closed her eyes behind her glasses, so she couldn't see, but she was fairly sure Romelle was furrowing her brows.

"Just for your information, I think Sam likes it."

"Please stop," Pidge squeaked.

Romelle laughed. Though it didn't last long, it was enough for Pidge to open her eyes and crack a smile. But as sudden as Romelle's outburst had been, she went back to being serious just as quickly.

"So, uhm. Obviously there's a reason I wanted to talk to you."

"Obviously," Pidge murmured in a way of agreeing.

Romelle sighed, wiping some hair out of her sweat-glistened forehead. "Anyways. You see, you seem...indecisive."

"I'm no-..."

Romelle held up a hand. "Let me finish. You seem indecisive. Though you might not know yourself. And let me tell you, it's totally fine to be scared now. To have the creeps, even." She looked at Pidge, who seemed about to protest again. "You are still only 16. I know you want to believe that with 16, you are all grown up and ready to live on your own. But if you ask anyone, they will tell you in a second that you are still a child in their eyes."

"Romelle," Pidge interrupted her, "Your point?"

"Yes, all right. My point is, you don't have to go. You could just stay here and wait a few more years."

Pidge quirked a brow. "Wow. And here I was thinking you would give me a big motivational speech about how I should go and follow my dreams, even if I'm really scared."

Romelle winced at the harsh accusation. "Yes, okay. Yes. I get that." She scratched her temple in thought. "I get that I did not say the most...tacty? thing, but honestly. You've still got so much time."

"It's tactful but try again."

Pidge had enough of Romelle's motivational speech. She leaned over the blonde to open the door and in the process push her feet off the glove compartment. "And by the way, whatever you are going to say, I am going. I have been waiting for this for years. And who knows whether or not I'll get another scholarship a few years down the road?"

"Katie, come on. You're a teenager. You want to show us what you can do. I get that. Hell, I was a teenager once!" By now Romelle was clinging to the handle on the ceiling, in an effort to not let Pidge kick her out of the car. "Katie!"

"It's - Pidge." With a last effort Pidge shoved and Romelle more or less rolled out of the car.  
Before the blonde could make her way back into the car, Pidge closed the door and locked it from the inside.  
And then, more or less on instinct than actually having thought about it, she started the engine.

"Greet mamma and papà, will you?"

"Just do nothing you might regret one day."

Pidge rolled up the window and hit the road.

 

 


End file.
